On August 1, 2015, The WhiteWave Foods Company (WhiteWave), a leading consumer packaged food and beverage company, completed its US$550 million acquisition of Sequel Naturals Ltd. (dba Vega Foods) (Vega), a Vancouver-based maker of plant-based nutrition products. Before the acquisition, Vega was majority owned by Mr. Charles Chang and VMG Partners.
WhiteWave was co-advised by Haynes and Boone LLP, in the US, and by McMillan LLP, in Canada. The McMillan team was led by Sandra Knowler, and included Peter Botz (tax), Allie Ketcham, Alice Lin and Cecilia Tsang (corporate/commercial), Janine MacNeil, Lisa Parliament, Dan Edmondstone, Ratika Gandhi and Josh Chad (product regulatory matters), Neil Campbell, Jun Chao Meng and Ryan Gallagher (Competition Act and Investment Canada Act), David McInnes, Ryan Black and Tyson Gratton (employment), and Mark Neighbor (securities).
The Haynes and Boone team was led by Dallas partner Jan Sharry and was composed of John McGowan, and Suzie Trigg, Anthony Montague, Zach Burnett and Jarom Yates. Others included Susan Wetzel (employee benefits and executive compensation), Tamara Devitt (labour & employment), Gavin George (IP), Sam Lichtman (tax), Carie McKinney (environmental), David Taubenfeld (insurance), Chris Kang (corporate) and Ben Mesches (appellate).
Vega and VMG Partners were represented in the US by Winston & Strawn LLP with a team led by Eva Davis (corporate) and including Josh Birenbaum, Sara Cieniewski and Brendan Mace (corporate), Richard Falek (antitrust), Roger Lucas and David Goff (tax), Eleni Kouimelis and Elise Scott (environmental), Michael Falk and Ariane Andrade (employee benefits); and in Canada by Stikeman Elliott LLP with a team led by Noordin Nanji and including Jennifer Honeyman and Shona Sinclair (corporate/M&A), Dean Kraus and Lindsay Gwyer (tax), Shawn Neylan, Susan Hutton, Megan MacDonald, and Michael Laskey (competition), Rachel Hutton and Stephen Holinski (real estate), Nancy Ramalho (employment), Andrea Boctor and Aiden Talai (pension and benefits), Justine Whitehead and Ryan Sheahan (IP). Peter Mogan of Mogan Daniels Slager LLP also acted as Canadian counsel for Vega and Mr. Chang.